On left headstone at the grave of Charles Taze Russell with pyramid beyond. On right, 1915 book by Russell.

In the 1990s, We were among the early adopters of a new service called America Online. Originally named PlayNET in 1985, they changed their name to America Online in 1988. We signed up in 1991 or 1992, and were so early that we didn’t need to have numbers at the end of our screen names. We still have those original accounts today.

We weren’t particularly interested in sending and receiving emails at that time, but rather in what was called “chat rooms.” More specifically, the chat rooms where we could dialogue with Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs). We would often write multi-page missives defending Christian doctrines, which the Watchtower regularly attacked in their magazines and books. We also gave our reasons for rejecting JW doctrine and the Watchtower’s claims to be the only true Christians. A regular cadre of JWs would respond to what we wrote, or, in some cases, just insult us, but that was and is the nature of this type of medium. Over time, a small group of Christians joined us in the discussions, and each of us seemed to have an area of focus on the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (WTBTS), their history, and teaching. Joy was and still is quite good at pointing out the many false prophecies of the Watchtower Society and the myriad flaws of logic in their doctrinal stands or concerning their regular vicious attacks on Christian doctrine and “the Church,” which the WTS referred to collectively as “the Whore of Babylon.” Starting with the founder, Charles Taze Russell, they had made numerous false prophecies and many rather ridiculous claims in their books and magazines. While it’s true that no one is perfect and many things said to be factual long ago cannot stand the test of time, unhappily for them, they claimed and still do claim to be speaking FOR GOD Himself, often receiving messages on many topics from angelic spirits. Now, here’s one truth we can take to the bank: God does not change the truth! His truth just stays true! But the Watchtower Society stated as fact that Jesus returned (invisibly) in 1874. Though this return was invisible, Jesus would absolutely come visibly in 1914, then 1915, 1918, 1925, 1942, and finally, He would ABSOLUTELY, without a doubt, show up for real in 1975! Well, that one failed too.

Many other of their vaunted truth claims (truths received directly from angels…Who received it from Jehovah God) were recognized as being untrue and downright silly with the passage of time. Russell believed that God’s truth could be found in the measurements of the pyramids in Egypt, for example. A 9-foot pyramid was erected at Russell’s gravesite in Pennsylvania. (and they say Christians are the pagans!) We took a picture of it in the 1990s, which was a good idea because it has since been removed. Time is the enemy of a false prophet.

I, Don, liked and still do like to use their own Bible version in discussions with JWs. Their Bible has been doctored in many areas by the WTBTS to say what they think it should say, for the sake of their false doctrine. It’s good to read the Bible, but not such a good idea to “fix it.” Showing how their Bible has been changed and corrected over time, as well as demonstrating that Jesus is Jehovah from their own New World Translation, is interesting. Joy Westerfeld and Keith Graham were two other of our Christian compadres in the “room” who had very good discussions with our JW friends. Joy Westerfeld was very good, with a particular focus on the Ante-Nicene Fathers and how the WTBTS misrepresents and distorts their writings. Pastor Keith Graham was especially laser-focused on Biblical conversations. In all, about a dozen of us were involved as missionaries to Jehovah’s Witnesses online. To this day, these friends hold a very special place in our hearts. About the same number of JWs interacted regularly with us and we did become sort of “friends” (or at least fairly friendly) with them and certainly came to love them. We wrote almost every day and continued this practice for several years. Sometimes, we wondered if God was using this or if we were just wasting time. The exercise certainly helped us sharpen our minds in paying close attention to what they were writing and in turn crafting sound responses and challenges.

One day, things changed in a beautiful way. Joy received an email from a Jehovah’s Witness elder with the screenname “Doc Bob.” He had never interacted in the chat room but stayed in the background, watching the back and forth, and one fine day, he emailed Joy, wondering if he could ask her some questions. That started a friendship that has lasted for about three decades now. Joy connected “Doc Bob” (Bob Gray) to Joy Westerfeld, me, Pastor Keith Graham, and others. Bob embraced the deity and physical resurrection of Christ and was born again. In 1995, he resigned from his position as an elder and left the Jehovah’s Witnesses. When he gives his testimony, he talks about “The Tale of Two Joys” and the way God used Joy Veinot and Joy Westerfeld in his life. As we realized that we had readers who never interacted with us, we began referring to those who stayed in the background as “Lurkers.” We discovered as we were working on this blog the term “Lurkers” has now made it to the Cambridge Dictionary:

Lurker:  someone who reads the messages in a chat room without taking part

Social media has become a modern-day Areopagus (Mars Hill) of Acts 17, where ideas are presented, challenged, and debated, and, sadly, a fair amount of unpleasant name-calling or even “trash-talking” occurs. Those comments are almost a faint echo from the Apostle Paul’s day: “What does this babbler wish to say?” (Acts 17:18). A fair number of those engaging in the debates will not be persuaded, no matter what is said, as they are solidly invested in their view. Some may wonder if the effort is worth it, since we may not see much of an avalanche of response. For us, that is now easy to answer – the effort is essentially for the lurker, though we do love those who we struggle with in the open of course, and hope they have cause to recall our discussions.  Lurkers, however, do not have to craft any response, come up with an argument, or get involved with the conflict in any way. They are safely in the background, watching and reading, looking to see who is making the most sense, and often asking themselves which side is kinder in their manner and delivery. We receive comments and questions on our social media posts and blogs, but email questions that come from those exchanges are perhaps more important. Like the Apostle Paul, who not only had a firm grasp of his own beliefs but that of the culture with which he was interacting. He could just as easily have drawn all his arguments from the Old Testament, but he had and used his ability to discuss the pagan’s own poets and philosophers, and even their pagan “gods,” thus meeting with them where they lived and with whom those gathered at the Areopagus were familiar. Paul had the ear of many that said not a word.

This concept of a lurker or observer doesn’t only apply in the public square but also in face-to-face interactions, where an observer silently hears and draws their own conclusions. Some years ago, we received a phone call from a JW, Craig, who had questions. He wondered if we would meet with him and his wife, Darlene. She was not nearly as open as he was, but she met with us, however reluctantly. We spent several hours using the JWs New World Translation of the Bible and their interlinear demonstrating that Jesus is YHWH. He was persuaded, but she was not. On their drive home, she thought of a way to end any future discussions with us. She said she would call and see if I would be willing to talk with the elders by phone to go over the things we discussed. It was a bit of a trap from her point of view. If I refused to talk with the elders by phone, as she suspected, that would prove I was lying. When they arrived home, she called me, and unbeknownst to me, Craig was on the extension when she asked if I would talk to elders on the phone.  When I responded, “No, I wouldn’t be interested in talking with them by phone,” I was told she seemed elated!  …Until that is, I finished my response, “I would rather meet them face-to-face.” Over the next few weeks, Craig had come to faith, and we helped him find a church. Darlene, on the other hand, tried to persuade the elders to meet with me, and they refused. Eventually, a “lurker,” their eleven-year-old daughter, Jackie, said she would ask the elders, confident they would agree. They didn’t. Jackie then asked her mother, “If refusing to meet with the elders would prove Mr. Veinot is lying, wouldn’t the elders refusing to meet with Mr. Veinot prove they are lying?” No theology or debate, just a simple question echoing back what she had heard and observed in the exchanges was used by God in a powerful way, and the entire wonderful family came to salvation.

None of this is really new, but most of us are so focused on persuading the individual we are speaking with that we don’t consider that what is being said, especially online, is listened to and analyzed as much as or perhaps more by “lurkers.” Many of those who confronted and challenged Jesus did so in public. They wanted to trip Him up. In Matthew 22, we see the Pharisees challenging Him with several surefire assaults in public, and we read how the lurkers perceived His answer:

And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. (Matthew 22:33)

We have of course conversed with many JWs and are not loathe to do that, but we have also found that it is sometimes easier to speak with someone about the faith if we talk about “that group over there.” In a sense, those we are speaking with then become the observers. Most people are interested in hearing what the “other” group believes and feel no need to be defensive, which gives us the ability to share what other groups teach about Jesus, His deity, resurrection, and salvation – and compare it with what the Bible teaches on these issues. We once had a man call asking if we would meet with his wife and attempt to get her out of the JWs. He was an atheist. I asked what he had to offer her to replace the JW view in satisfying her spiritual concerns. He said he didn’t care what she became as long as she wasn’t a JW. In order to get her to meet with us, he was less than honest with her about who we were. As we realized that we felt uncomfortable with his deception, and of course, she seemed very uncomfortable with the direction the meeting was headed. Joy and I then began discussing the existence of God with her husband. The wife soon actively joined in the discussion as a sort of partner with us to convince her husband that God existed. Why? She wanted him to believe in God and become a JW. After that exchange, we brought up the beliefs of other cult groups on the nature of God, Jesus, the incarnation, resurrection and salvation. He became quite frustrated because we weren’t talking about JWs, not realizing that many cults have very similar views to each other on doctrine. What he didn’t know was that each of the teachings we were addressing by these various groups were the same or very similar to the teachings of JWs. She paid close attention to the scriptures we read to them, and we could see in her face that she was “getting the message.” We were very clear in what the Bible teaches but aimed nothing specifically at her and asked her for no responses. But she heard. A few days later, in a telephone conversation, the husband mentioned that she had been very quiet on the way home that night. We met again a week later and discovered she had left the JWs and had become a Christian. When asked what changed her mind, she said that she knew that each of the groups we discussed was a cult, and she kept asking herself if she was in a cult. We sent her home with more information. She did further investigation over the course of the week, and the evidence persuaded her she was in a cult and led her to faith in the true Jesus of Scripture and history. We lost touch with them, but we hope her husband might have considered what we said and become a believer himself.

Our task as ambassadors in the marketplace of ideas is to represent Him well and make a case for faith – but it is only God who does the convincing. The Apostle Paul wrote to a young pastor, Timothy, and said:

Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. (2 Timothy 2:23-26)Ω

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